Andbook* (for And book*)

The tagline for the movie Alien is “In space, no one can hear you scream.” When I look at a typo like Andbook, I think, "Without spaces, no one can understand what you write."  But we didn’t always include spaces. Until 600-800 CE, writing using the Latin alphabet was scriptio continua (continuous script), and words ran together without any spaces between.

Scriptio continua has reappeared with the Internet Age: we see it in email addresses and URLs. This can lead to hilarious misunderstandings, though I likely shouldn't share some of the funniest (and rudest) in this blog (do a web search for “awkward URLs” and get ready to cringe).

On the tamer side, the address for the website Choose Spain was www.choosespain.com (I’m not that fond of pain, so perhaps I won’t use them for my next travel plans) and American Scrap Metal was www.americanscrapmetal.com, (now that sounds painful!).

Leanne Olson

(Scroll photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)